Presently some coffees intended for commercial consumption are shipped to a distributor in partially empty cardboard cartons. Upon receipt, the distributor opens these partially empty cartons and inserts ancillary materials, e.g., cups, filters, creamer, stirrers and sweeteners. Then the distributor reseals the cartons and transports them for sale to the end user; in this case, coffee providing establishments. The end user then opens the package to remove coffee and ancillary materials as needed.
This system results in increased shipping volume and produces a corresponding increase in shipping costs. Thus, it is desirable to ship these products in packages which have a volume substantially equal to the volume of the product itself during shipment from the product manufacturer. It is also desirable to enable a subsequent increase in package volume to permit the insertion of ancillary materials. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a means for orderly incremental dispensing of the package contents. It is additionally desirable to provide the above features while reducing packaging and shipping costs to a minimum.
In addition to coffee, there are other products which could benefit from being shipped in a package which includes an ancillary compartment requiring only a slight increase in shipping volume. Diapers, for instance, could be beneficially packaged in such a container. The package used to ship the diapers would double as a diaper bag by allowing the consumer to simply fill the ancillary compartment with items such as baby powder, baby wipes, extra clothes, etc.
Schwimmer et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,176 and Dock, U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,569, disclose cardboard packages having collapsible ancillary areas. Morrison, U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,295, discloses a hard or soft cigarette pack with a slidable drawer for accommodating matches. None of these references teach a flexible bag having a reclosable and securable ancillary compartment with a dispensing opening in the main compartment.
Schneider et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,640, Kugler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,640, Helms, U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,718 and Repko, U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,768 disclose flexible multi-compartment packages. These references, however, do not teach accessing each compartment through separate opening means, nor do they teach the securely reclosable feature.
Although the prior art discloses examples of packages having collapsible ancillary compartments, none of these references teach a package made of flexible material having two vertically adjacent compartments; one with a means for permanently opening the compartment for dispensing and one with a securely reclosable opening means.